Aloha! The Hawaiian Polynesian Revue is a professional performing dance troupe dedicated to honoring the Polynesian islands through dance and music. The group whose members vary from Hawaiian to Samoan, Spanish, Italian, Philippino, and many other mixtures of origin, as it is in the islands today, have been doing luau shows in the Midwest for over 3 ˝ years. Kona, who is the Master of Ceremonies is 100% Hawaiian and a direct descendant of the last queen of the monarchy of Hawaii, Queen Leiliokaloni. Kona is her great-great-grandson and lends a great deal of authenticity to the group. The backgriound and experience of the rest of the musicians, plus the talent and character of the dancers make the group successful in reaching its goals.

The Hawaiian Polynesian Revue covers at least four islands of the Polynesian South Pacific during their shows that last a half hour to an hour or more. They present dances and music from Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, New Zealand (Maori) using taped music; guitar, ukelele and drums. Each island or culture requires a specific style of costume, certain motions of the hands and hips and type of musical sound. So far, the other islands which are not included are Fiji, Tonga, and the Marquesas, or Easter Islands. They plan to include some of these dances and music in the future. Men play a big part in these cultures, sometimes dancing like a fierce warrior as in New Zealand, or doing fire and knife dancing or slap dancing as done in Samoa, and other times doing ancient chants from Hawaii or compliment the female dancer as in Tahiti. Sometimes the Revue invites male dancers, Sua and Charles K. from other cities for larger shows. All of the island cultures use feathers, shells, grass, flowers, leaves, seeds or nuts and b
right, bold, beautiful printed cloth worn as Pareaus, lava lavas, ias, and decorate their heads with heis, hakus or tall head dresses. In certain dances the artist will use Lapa Lapa sticks (Samoan), Piuli sticks (Hawaii), Uli Uli’s (Hawaii), Lava rocks (Hawaii), Ipus (Hawaii), Poi Balls (New Zealand), Iis (Tahiti) and, of course, the log drum, called Toere or Pahu drum. The Pahu drum is usually tall, covered with animal skin and is used to give the beat of the dance. The drum can be slow as in the ancient chants of Hawaii that incorporate the Ipu Heke and Ipu gourd, or fast as in an otea in Tahiti. The Puniu coconut drums, Illili rattle and Lali drums are also used depending on the choice of tempo or instrument desired. Some of the hip or feet movements used in nearly all dances are called amis, uwehe kaholo, hella, and kalakua after King Kalakua who revived the dances of Hawaii after the missionaries had discouraged their use for many years. Of couorse, it's important to watch the hands too because they tel
l the story in all island dances.

The Hawaiian Polynesian Revue encourages everyone to learn more about Polynesian men, women and children in their Saturday morning classes at Dimensions Dance Studio in Olivette, taught by Marian Harris of Kauai, and has plans to do a weekend seminar in the fall of this year, inviting a master teacher to St. Louis from Tahiti to teach anyone interested in the that style of dance. We are always searching for anyone interested in keeping these cultures active in the Midwest, Polynesian descent or not.

So in the spirit of “MANA” and love of the islands, we say to you, our hearts and door are open to all.

For more information, call Linda (“Atea”) Evans, founder of HPR, artistic director and manager at 921-1817.